The reader is referred, merely by way of example, to EP 0 849 582 A1. This document discloses a generic method for treating objects, in particular cytological or histological specimens. In it, cytological or histological specimens are conveyed, by means of an object carrier or basket and optionally in magazines, to the differently operating treatment stations of an automatic stainer, the stainer comprising multiple processing stations having different reagents.
The generic method known from EP 0 849 582 A1 refers to an automatic stainer (multistainer), this being concretely an apparatus for staining histological specimens. These specimens are made available on an object carrier, and multiple object carriers can be arranged in magazines. The different treatment or processing stations are reached via a transport apparatus that can comprise a robot arm. The transport apparatus transports the object carriers or object carrier magazines to the respective treatment stations, at or in which treatment actions take place in accordance with a selectable staining method. The object carriers or object carrier magazines are inserted into the reagent-containing containers of the treatment stations so that the transport apparatus, after releasing the respective object carrier or object carrier magazine, can continue transporting irrespective of the treatment that is taking place. During the processing time in a treatment station, further object carriers are grasped and can be delivered into an available treatment station, so that multiple staining programs can be executed in parallel.
With the known automatic stainers, the desired staining programs can be programmed by the user, multiple program steps being provided. Each individual program step contains numerous parameters, for example including information about the treatment station and how it is loaded with reagents, and the treatment time.
In automatic stainers known heretofore, only one treatment station can be specified per program step, double occupancy of the treatment station being precluded. In the context of a (desirable) parallel processing of multiple object carrier magazines (racks) that are to be stained, this results in bottlenecks because of the treatment stations that are critical in this context, thereby very considerably limiting throughput.
This can easily be demonstrated with reference to the single FIGURE, specifically if, in a program illustrated schematically therein, a treatment station is indicated in the first program step with a processing time of, for example, ten minutes, and multiple object carrier magazines are to be treated simultaneously with the staining program of this treatment station. Until now only serial processing, for example on a ten minute cycle, was possible in this context, and throughput was thereby very considerably limited.